Part of this wonderful military life is moving. Unless you are one of those rare military families that do their entire career in the same location you are going to be faced with PCS and house hunting and the decision to rent, buy or live in military housing. Sometimes the decisions are made for us, like in overseas locations that don’t offer government housing. But when you are overwhelmed with the options it’s helpful to look at the pros and cons of each choice.
RENT
PRO: Any military spouse knows our friend Murphy quite well. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong as soon as your spouse leaves for TAD or deployment. When you rent, these things are taken care of by landlords and rental companies. Since I moved into my apartment, I’ve had floods, snow in the closet, electrical issues, and a nail polish issue that rivaled a Jackson Pollock painting. Thanks to renting I didn’t have to pay anything to have all of those issues fixed.
CON: BAH varies at each duty station so what you may have become accustom to at one location may not be in the budget at the next. In order to live in a comparable apartment or rental house you might need to live a bit farther from base and when that’s not possible you might have to downsize. I know that for me, location and safety were a priority when I looked for a post-deployment place. I had to compromise and take an apartment that is farther from my base in order to live somewhere I was comfortable living alone.